Patterned rugs and carpets

ABSTRACT

An ornamental dual-patterned tuft pile carpet with a backing material having a repeat color patterned pre-printed warp formed in a higher and lower tuft pile textured pattern with the latter pattern correlated and combined with the repeat color patterned warp, and in which carpet the tuft pile may be either woven or tufted, and wherein the patterns, or either of them, may be repeated transversely, longitudinally, or both.

United States Patent 1191 Peters et al. 5l Nov. 26, 1974 [54] PATTERNED RUGS AND CARPETS 3,343,242 9/1967 D Witte 28/72.6

, 3,550,543 12/1970 [75] Inventors! Peters, Taylors; Davld 3,669,818 6/1972 Stark 161/62 Parlin, Greenville, both Of 3,692,466 9/1972 Mercer 28/72.6 [73] Assignee: Bigelow-Sanford, Inc., Greenville,

S.C. Primary Examiner-William J. Van Balen [22] Filed: Aug. 25, 1972 [2]] Appl. No.: 283,395 [57] ABSTRACT An ornamental dual-patterned tuft pile carpet with a U.S. Cl. P, backing material having a repeat olor patterned re- 28/ 156/72, 156/2 printed warp formed in a higher and lower tuft pile [51] Iltl. Cl D03d 27/06 textured pattern with the latter pattern correlated and Fleld 0f sealfch combined with the repeat color patterned warp, and in 156/ 7 112/410, 266; 28/ 13,75,726 which carpet the tuft pile may be either woven or tufted, and wherein the patterns, or either of them, ReferenceS Cited may be repeated transversely, longitudinally, or both.

UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,067,430 12/1962 Wilcox 161/63 14 Clams 8 Drawmg 'gures l JNPRlNTED PRINTED UNPRJQTED T- LOW LOOPS BACK MATERIAL PATENTLUNUVZSIHM SHEET 10F 3 FIG I On E M A E B R. M DR AN E E A R S D m? OTN m M m C PP Y. P H MM U WYS PRINTED WARP FIG 2' BEAM SUPP LY FINISHED DUAL PATTERNED CARPET HI LO LOOP PILE WEAVER TUFTER FIG 3 MATERIAL PATENTEUNSVZEIBH 3,850,783

- sneer 20F 2.

HIGH LOOPS TLOW LOOPS "-'BACK MATERIAL 7 B sum 3 0? 3 PATENTEU I18! 25 I974 FIG 6 X ,0 G O IIIII J I L I I Q OO'OO OOOOQOO OO OOQ X LOW LOOP (WITH WHITE OR LIGHT COLOR) LOW LOOP (WITH DARKER PRINTED COLOR) O HIGH LOOP (WITH WHITE OR LIGHT COLOR) HIGH LOOP (WITH DARKER PRINTED COLOR) PATTERNED RUGS AND CARPETS This invention relates to novel rug products, and methods of making certain attractive rugs and carpets, having a repeat colored printed warp pattern appearing in a pile and surface thereof in addition to and correlated or phased with a high-low pile woven or tufted to provide a textured pattern from differences in pile height also appearing in said warp.

The invention is particularly advantageous and economical in the production of small lots of rugs and carpets, frequently desired for custom work for which a supply of various individually printed color warp patterns may be either readily made up as required, or be held in storage on warp beams ready for weaving or tufting in any one of various high-low textured pile patterns as desired. One example of the prior art, vitally differing in both product and process from the present invention, prints a colored pattern as a final step on the surface ofa previously woven or tufted pile (of uniform height) carpet, such practice requiring expensive complicated machinery and also requiring long production runs to justify the cost thereoffThe present novel invention provides many economic and practical advantages in method and product as will hereinafter appear.

In the practice of the present invention suitable textile warp pile materials may be desirably color printed to advance in either short or extended pattern repeats preferably of the order of, say, an inch or two up to 36 inches or more, and stored on conventional textile warp beams ready for warpwise pile forming. Such warp beams then may be woven or tufted, as desired, into final salable finished form embodying the dual related patterns, the color-printed pattern and the high-low textured pattern normally correlated with each other, as hereinafter set forth, in accordance with this invention.

The novel interrelation or combination of the previously printed color-printed andthe high-low textured pile patterns ofthis invention, moreover, may be incorporated in very attractive carpets and rugs without resort to expensive complicated electronic means. Thus,

the present invention provides superior results, method and product, accomplishing a very satisfactory degree and character of pattern definition and registry, as desired, integration and repeat, by the dual phased pattern technique hereof.

In the drawings FIG. I is a simplified block diagram ofa conventional apparatus employed in warp yarn color printing of re- 1 peat color patterns herein employed;

FIG. 2 is a simplified diagram ofa sequence of conventional apparatus employed in accordance with the method hereof to convert by appropriate weaving or FIG. 4, an isometric view, illustrates a conventional high-low pile product per se woven by the use of profile wires which may be employed in forming and incorporating the textured pattern aspect of this invention, such a woven product (not showing the color pattern aspect of this invention) being shown and described in F. P. Groats U.S. Pat. No. 2,546,261 of Mar. 27, 1951, whose FIG. 2 is taken as the basis of present FIG. 4.

FIG. 5, a warpwise sectional view illustrates stitches of a conventional high-low pile tufted product which alternatively may be employed in forming and incorporating the textured pattern aspect of this invention, such a tufted product (not showing the color pattern aspect of the invention) and apparatus for making the same being shown and described in H. F. Odenweller U.S. Pat. No. 2,853,032 of Sept. 23, 1958, whose FIG. 9 is taken as the basis of present FIG. 5, and see, too, similar Crawford U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,853,933 and 4 of the same date;

FIG. 6 illustrates diagrammatically in plan a portion of a typical dual-patterned product of the invention in which each pile tuft of the combined correlated patterns is diagrammed; and

FIGS. 7A and 7B, taken together, illustrate steps of the method of making and a portion of one warpwise row of the pile product of the invention.

Referring again to the prior art, it is not new to print a pattern on warp yarn and to weave it into carpet of uniform pile height and there are various patents on methods and apparatus in the art directed thereto. The trade, however, has found from untoward experience that when pattern printed yarn is fed from beams, particularly in wide weaving ofcarpets that required more than one yarn beam, that the pattern became lost or badly distorted as the weaving progressed. This is because tension on two or more different beams will vary, and also the tension on individual yarns ends on a beam will vary somewhat. Some of the ends become slacker and other ends become tighter as the beam unwinds in the weaving. In a very short time: the incorrect color will be forming the pile over plain pile wires and the pattern desired will not clearly appear on the face of the woven carpet, and the same result occurs in tufted carpets. In accordance with this invention, a color pattern printed with the required amount of warp take-up length and fed from a beam or a plurality of beams does not have the pattern lost or badly distorted, as in the prior art, for the profile wires used for high-low weaving, and the pattern slats used for high-low tufting, are designed (i.e., so that the sum of the heights formedzby one pile warp is exactly the same as the sum of the heights formed by all other pile warps, whether the heights were formed overpile wires or formed by the slats adjusting the'yarn feed) to insure equal take-up of all pile warp ends used to form the textured pattern, despite substantial differences in pile heights. This equal take-up of each pile yarn likewise insures that the color pattern design printed on the pile yarns will appear on the pile surface of the carpet without substantial-distortion or loss of pattern. A satisfactory color pattern definition retention may be attained, even over indeterminate long lengths of the carpet including many repeats. Either profile wires or slats are employed for pile form ing, usually not exceeding about 40 wires or 288 slats. For precise pattern match the same number of pile tufts forming the textured pattern should be equal to, or equally divisible into, the overall yarn length (woven or tufted) of a unit color pattern repeat length of the printed pile yarn pattern. Thus, for example it has been found possible to produce an attractive woven pile carpet, from a warp beam or warp beams, having a textured surface of uneven heights of pile and a printed repeat pattern (formed from repeat-patterned printed pile yarns) on a velvet carpet loom with profile wires, wires that have various heights on the same pile wire, as long as the wires are designed to take-up or use equal amounts of each of the pile yarns on the beams for one repeat of the profile wire set.

Similarly, it is possible to produce an attractive tufted pile carpet fabric from a similar printed warp with a textured surface of uneven heights of tufts, which adds printed repeat pattern interest, by means of using the pattern printed yarn, delivered off a beam or beams, to a tufting machine, such tufting machines being equipped with a slat-pattern attachment. The slatpattern attachment is designed (as are those of the patents referred to under FIG. 4 above) to produce tufts in a variety of heights, but so designed that one complete run of the high-low repeat pattern will require an equal take-up" of each end of yarn being fed to the loom.

The pile tufts of the carpets of this invention can be loop pile, cut pile, or a combination of loop and cut pile.

Again referring to the drawings and their legends by way of further explaining and describing the present methods and products,

FIG. 1 illustrates the practice common in the art of color-printing in longitudinally extended form a repeat pattern on warp yarns which are then beamed on conventional warp beams, thus performing the first step of the present method. The step of FIG. 1 is followed by assembling as shown in FIG. 2 in correlated repeating relation the required number of wound warp beams for the width of carpet being made (up to leading warp yarns from thebeams to the high-low pile carpet weaver or tufter where suitable necessary back material is combined with the pile (see back material in FIGS. 3 and 5). This conventional machine of FIG. 2 forms the pile, woven or tufted as desired, to provide the pile of non-uniform heights to provide the textured pattern from the differences in pile height as required and correlated with the color pattern for the invention as more fully described above immediately following the brief description of the drawings.

Typical differences in woven pile height and the forming thereof are illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4, fully understood in the carpet making art, and fully shown and described in the U.S. patents, respectively, referred to above under FIGS. 3 and 4, where first mentioned.

Similarly, typical differences in tufted pile height and the forming thereof are shown in FIG. 5, fully understood in the carpet making art, and fully shown and described in the US. patents, respectively, referred to above under FIG. 5, where first mentioned.

In either method, weaving or tufting, the property of correctly designed profile wires or pattern slats, which create the high-low texture pattern, to maintain equal take-up of each pile warp from each beam insures the correct positioning of the repeat color pattern printed on the pile yarns in the face of the fabric, regardless of the extent to which the two patterns may overlap or coexist in the finished carpets.

In FIG. 6, each small square area thereof (in practice say eight squares per inch) represents a single pile tuft wherein: a square, where open, representing a low tuft of white or light color background; a square with an X representing a low tuft with a pre-printed color darker than the background; an open circle in a square representing a high pile tuft of white or light background color; and a solid dark circular disk representing a high pile tuft of contrasting darker printed color than the background.

In FIGS. 7A and 7B, the warpwise row in FIG. 78 includes some sixteen warpwise tufts. These 16 illustrated pile tufts include all four species of tufts just referred to, i.e., reading from left to right in FIG. 78, three unprinted low tufts; then one printed completely dark-colored low tuft followed by four printed high tufts which also are completely dark-colored; then three unprinted low tufts, and finally five unprinted high tufts. The pre-printed yarn as beamed from which these 16 warpwise tufts are formed is shown in extended form in FIG. 7A with its left end directly above the left end of the loop tufts (whether woven or tufted) of FIG. 78. FIG. 7A indicates the proportional length of yarn required for each pile tuft with the lighter unprinted background portion for the low tufts extending to midway between tufts three and four from the left end of the yarn, the printed portion of the yarn (darker solid portion of this figure (extending from a point midway of pile tufts three and four (under or in the indicating backing of FIG. 78) to a point near uncolored unprinted low tuft nine of FIG. 7B, the yarn of tufts nine through 16, low and high as shown, being uncolored unprinted as shown in FIG. 78, thus also being a part of the background of the color pattern as well as a part of the correlated textured pattern.

Though the high and low pile described above, whether woven or tufted, is preferably arranged and patterned, by suitable conventional automatic pattern controlling means, is strictly and technically an artistic pattern, and readily discernible as such as distinguished from a random heterogeneous arrangement of high and low pile, it is intended that the phrase texture pattern, or textured pattern, mean herein and include any regular or repetitive arrangement of higher and lower tufts whether or not readily or ordinarily visually recognized as a pattern, particularly when casually observed. For example, adjacent rows of pile (whether warpwise or transverse) may simply alternate (high-low-high-low or in pairs high-high-low-low-high-high, low-high-highlow-high-high, see FIG. 3). Again, such alternating adjacent rows or pairs may be wavy, ranging from high to low tufts (see FIG. 5) with e.g. lower tufts of one row fully or partially staggered with respect to higher tufts of an adjacent parallel row in atleast some areas of the carpet so that the dual colored and textured patterns together contribute the resultant visual effect of said areas.

From the foregoing, it will be evident that the colored and textured patterns need neither be fully superimposed nor coextensive, so long as areas of the respective patterns at least in part together contribute to the resultant dual patterned visual effect. Also, one or more separate printed patterns may be combined with one or more textured patterns within the intended meaning of the dual patterned language of claims herein.

What is claimed is:

1. An ornamental dual-patterned tuft pile carpet having back material, repeat color patterned pre-printed warp, said pro-printed warp being formed in a higher and lower tuft pile textured pattern with the latter pattern correlated and combined with said repeat color patterned warp.

2. A carpet as claimed in claim 1 wherein the tuft pile is woven.

3. A carpet as claimed in claim 1 wherein the tuft pile is tufted.

4. A carpet as claimed in claim 1 wherein lengths of correlated printed and textured patterns are repeated transversely as well as longitudinally of the carpet.

5. A carpet as claimed in claim 1 wherein one printed pattern length includes the aggregate length of a multiplicity of textured patterns.

6. A carpet as claimed in claim 1 wherein certain higher pile tufts and certain lower pile tufts are preprinted by colors extending throughout their lengths.

7. A carpet as claimed in claim 1 wherein the printed pattern length differs from a multiple of the texture pattern length.

8. A carpet as claimed in claim 7 wherein the over-all lengths of the pile yarns are substantially equal.

9. A carpet as claimed in claim 1 wherein the over-all lengths of individual pile yarns are substantially equal.

10. The method of making a dual-patterned ornamental tuft pile carpet which includes color-printing a sheet of warp yarns in longitudinally extended repeat pattern form, beaming the warp yarns on warp beams, assembling on a tuft pile forming machine in color pattern-synchronized relation to each other a plurality of said warp beams, and then with required additional back material, on said tuft pile forming machine forming a higher and lower tuft pile texture pattern in correlated repeating relation to the color printed repeat pattern appearing in the exposed portions of the tuft pile thus formed as thereby shortened to finished carpet repeat pattern length from its original extended warp printed pattern length.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the pile forming is pile weaving.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein the pile forming is pile tufting.

13. The method of claim 10 in which substantial carpet lengths of printed and textured patterns include more repeats of the textured pattern than of the printed pattern.

14. The method of claim 10 in which carpet one printed pattern length is approximately transversely coincident and equal to the aggregate length of a multiplicity of pile patterns. 

1. An ornamental dual-patterned tuft pile carpet having back material, repeat color patterned pre-printed warp, said preprinted warp being formed in a higher and lower tuft pile textured pattern with the latter pattern correlated and combined with said repeat color patterned warp.
 2. A carpet as claimed in claim 1 wherein the tuft pile is woven.
 3. A carpet as claimed in claim 1 wherein the tuft pile is tufted.
 4. A carpet as claimed in claim 1 wherein lengths of correlated printed and textured patterns are repeated transversely as well as longitudinally of the carpet.
 5. A carpet as claimed in claim 1 wherein one printed pattern length includes the aggregate length of a multiplicity of textured patterns.
 6. A carpet as claimed in claim 1 wherein certain higher pile tufts and certain lower pile tufts are pre-printed by colors extending throughout their lengths.
 7. A carpet as claimed in claim 1 wherein the printed pattern length differs from a multiple of the texture pattern length.
 8. A carpet as claimed in claim 7 wherein the over-all lengths of the pile yarns are substantially equal.
 9. A carpet as claimed in claim 1 wherein the over-all lengths of individual pile yarns are substantially equal.
 10. The method of making a dual-patterned ornamental tuft pile carpet which includes color-printing a sheet of warp yarns in longitudinally extended repeat pattern form, beaming the warp yarns on warp beams, assembling on a tuft pile forming machine in color pattern-synchronized relation to each other a plurality of said warp beams, and then with required additional back material, on said tuft pile forming machine forming a higher and lower tuft pile texture pattern in correlated repeating relation to the color printed repeat pattern appearing in the exposed portions of the tuft pile thus formed as thereby shortened to finished carpet repeat pattern length from its original extended warp printed pattern length.
 11. The method of claim 10 wherein the pile forming is pile weaving.
 12. The method of claim 10 wherein the pile forming is pile tufting.
 13. The method of claim 10 in which substantial carpet lengths of printed and textured patterns include more repeats of the textured pattern than of the printed pattern.
 14. The method of claim 10 in which carpet one printed pattern length is approximately transversely coincident and equal to the aggregate length of a multiplicity of pile patterns. 